1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus for holding, inverting and cleaning empty gas cylinders.
2. Related Art
Gas containing cylinders, sometimes called bottles, often have to be cleaned after use. Certain of the cylinders, such as compressed gas for soft drink dispensers, are required to be cleansed after each use, or periodically hydrostatically tested, that is, when empty and prior to being refilled. While the procedure would appear to be simple, there are physical problems associated with such cleansing. In most cases simple washing of the inside of the cylinder is sufficient. However, prior to reuse the cylinder must be drained of wash water or test water and dried, usually with compressed air. The physical size and weight of a single gas cylinder, even when empty, greatly increases the difficulty of handling during the cleansing operation.
Cylinder inverters can facilitate the cleaning operations, and there are presently some available, including a simple cylinder inversion apparatus. Additionally, there are more sophisticated automatic cylinder inverters that are air powered. The first suffer from lack of washing and drying facilities and the latter from the expense.